


Monster guts and potlucks

by HelveticaBrown



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:29:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6113709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelveticaBrown/pseuds/HelveticaBrown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Emma thinks about what life could be like if they left Storybrooke behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monster guts and potlucks

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't going to bring this across from tumblr, but samlis kind of guilted me into it. And the tag's pretty quiet at the moment, so... why not?

“Do you ever think about leaving all of this behind?” Emma gestured towards the town, the air above it heavy with smoke.

Regina sat next to her on the swing-set. “Sometimes I do.” She was quiet for a moment, then she said, “The last time you talked about this, you were all set to take Henry away from me.”

Emma winced at the way Regina’s voice cracked as she said that last part, winced at the memory of her past stupidity. “You know I wouldn’t do that to you, or to him. _We_ could run away, take Henry someplace where his biggest worry is how he can pad out his college applications with enough extra-curriculars.”

Regina reached over and brushed her hand across Emma’s shoulder. When Emma looked at her questioningly, she said, “You had some entrails on your jacket.”

Emma sighed. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I’m sick of scrubbing bloodstains and monster-goo out of my clothes. I’m tired of worrying about who’s going to be kidnapped next, or whether the cashier at the grocer is actually Baba Yaga in disguise.”

“Baba Yaga's actually the spice merchant, just off Main Street. You know, the one with the mortar and pestle sign above the door. And she’s not so bad when you get to know her.”

Emma made an exasperated sound. “You know what I mean.”

“I do. I’m tired too. But who would fight the monsters if we left?”

Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. Would there be any monsters to fight if we weren’t here? Sometimes I feel like we’re a lightning rod for trouble. Maybe if we left, everyone in Storybrooke could live out their lives, peacefully.”

Regina didn’t respond, and they sat there for a few moments, swinging back and forth half-heartedly.

Eventually, she said, “It’s been so long since I’ve been anywhere but Storybrooke. I’m not sure I’d know what to do with myself.” She looked at Emma. “I’m not sure I’d know who I was.”

“Henry and I would always be there to remind you: you’re Regina.” Emma smiled. “And you know you’d find a way to rise to the top, no matter where you were. I can see it now: a month after we arrived, you’d stage a coup and take over the P&C at Henry’s school. Within two years, you’d be Mayor of whatever Podunk town we landed in.”

“Tell me more about this hypothetical future,” Regina said and Emma couldn’t quite tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

“It’d be a little warmer than Maine, maybe somewhere not too far from the beach. A nice place, with good schools and the most dangerous it would ever get would be in the lead-up to the annual bake-off when Mrs Smith tried to sabotage the reigning champion by switching her sugar for salt.

“On Saturdays, we’d go watch Henry play soccer, and you’d tell the referee you’d turn him into a toad when he didn’t give Henry a free kick. We’d chaperone Henry’s school dances and he’d complain about how embarrassing we were. There’d be potlucks with the neighbours, and your lasagne would always be the first thing to go.”

“Sounds nice,” Regina murmured.

“It would be. We’d live on the same street. You’d be in the best house on the street and all the neighbours would madly try to outdo your topiary and I’d be in the house a few doors down that everyone’s been campaigning for years to get pulled down.”

“You could live with us,” Regina said softly.

Emma didn’t respond. She stared out over the water, watching as the portal re-opened, disgorging another monster. “We should probably take care of that.”

“Probably.”

They stood up from the swings and there was an easy synchrony in their movements. They hadn’t always fit together quite so well, but standing shoulder to shoulder, combining their magic, it was second nature to them now.

As they subdued the monster and closed the portal, Emma thought that perhaps she didn’t want to leave this behind. She didn’t want to leave behind the moments when the instinctual response to crisis, the simple process of action and reaction brought the two of them perfectly into step and the bonds between them seemed unbreakable.

Other moments between them weren’t this easy; they had too much time to think, to worry, to let fear get in the way. It had been months since things had changed between them, and yet they were still tentative, still fragile, still so new.

The monster’s corpse was swallowed up by the ocean and Emma felt Regina’s magic withdraw from her own. It left a strange ache behind, a sudden emptiness, and Emma wanted to reach out, find a way to fill it again.

Instead, she said, “Do you think that’s the last of them?”

Regina shrugged. “Maybe. It doesn’t feel like there are any more portals forming. I think we closed it properly, this time.”

They started to walk back towards the town.

“Do you want to come over tonight? You could stay… if you want, I mean. You don’t…”

There was a yearning note in Regina’s voice that she couldn’t quite disguise and Emma stepped in close, wrapping an arm around her waist, cutting off whatever Regina was about to say next. “I’d love to come over. Maybe after I go home and wash some of the monster guts out of my hair, though.”

They walked like that for a while, their footfalls in perfect rhythm, and maybe it was the residual adrenaline from the fight making her brave, or maybe it was the feel of Regina pressed against her side, like for once, they were made to fit together. Maybe it was both. Whatever it was, Emma stopped walking and turned to face Regina, taking hold of both her hands.

“You know how you said before I could live with you and Henry. If we ran away, I mean. I think I’d like that.” She watched Regina, waiting for a reaction, terrified that she’d overstepped, that she’d pushed too far.

Regina shook her head. “It wouldn’t have to be in some hypothetical future in Podunk. It could be here in Storybrooke. Now, if you wanted, or sometime in the future. We wouldn’t have the nice beach, or the potlucks, or the perfect suburban existence, but none of that’s important. You and me and Henry. That’s what matters.”


End file.
